My son's dog has severe ear problems. Up until now he has been managing it with regular cleaning, but the itch is now intolerable. He visited the vet the other day and he said that his ears are "closed" due to inflammation. He gave an antibiotic plus prednisone. My son gave the prednisone the first day, but after reading horrible stories of its side effects, he now is having second thoughts. He said he is not going to continue with it!! Is this an OK thing to do? Any input would be appreciated.

Lucky Rescue

November 30th, 2005, 01:26 PM

Prednisone is a very potent and potentially very damaging drug, if used for the long term.

However I assume this dog was given a short course of them, with decreasing dosages for about a week or so?

I used to give this to my dog for his seasonal allergies and he suffered no ill effects that I know of.

A warning - prednisone must NOT be stopped abruptly, but must be tapered off gradually.

Beaglemom

November 30th, 2005, 01:35 PM

I've never used prednisone, but what Deb's Lucky Rescue said sounds right.

About the dog's ear inflammations/infections, has he been tested for allergies? This too me sounds like he is suffering from some sort of allergy and if you pinpoint the allergen, you can probably correct the ear inflammations. I would discuss this with the vet. There are usually underlying reasons for ear infections/inflammations